Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale will no longer be pursuing legal action against Rob Ford after the mayor apologized “without reservation” for making televised statements that Mr. Dale claims implied he is a pedophile.

Mr. Dale also decided not to file a defamation suit against VisionTV after ZoomerMedia apologized for “broadcasting the offending words spoken by Mr. Ford.”

“This was primarily a matter between Mr. Dale and Mr. Ford,” ZoomerMedia said in a written statement sent out Wednesday evening, but “we can confirm that those words will never again be broadcast on any of our television outlets or websites.”

The reporter’s lawyers had accused the broadcaster of “maliciously” going to air with the mayor’s comments.

“I should not have said what I did, and I wholly retract my statements and apologize to Mr. Dale without reservation for what I said,” wrote Mr. Ford in a two-page letter released Wednesday.

In an interview with Conrad Black broadcast on Dec. 9, Mr. Ford described a surprise May 2012 encounter with Mr. Dale near the fence in his Etobicoke backyard, where the reporter had come to research a story about the mayor’s attempt to purchase a neighbouring strip of public land.

“When a guy’s taking pictures of little kids, I don’t want to say the word, but you start thinking, you know, what’s this guy all about?”

In a notice of libel filed three days later, lawyers acting for Mr. Dale called the statement “vicious libel.”

“In its plain and ordinary meaning,” they wrote, “Rob Ford is calling Mr. Dale a pedophile.”

In Wednesday’s letter, drafted to “address Mr. Dale’s concerns,” the mayor says his version of events was “inaccurate” and he addresses, point by point, a list of other statements that prompted the reporter’s legal objections.

“I sincerely hope that Mr. Dale will accept my personal apology for my comments and all harm my words may have caused him,” the mayor wrote.

Contrary to statements made in the interview, Mr. Ford said he never saw Mr. Dale standing on bricks or cinderblocks, never saw him looking over his fence, never saw him on his property and never saw him carrying a camera beyond a cellphone with photographic capabilities.

“There is no basis for saying as I did on December 17 and in the past that Mr. Dale was ‘lurking’ or ‘leering’ near or over my fence or behaving surreptitiously and I should not have said that,” the letter, on his official mayoral letterhead, stated.

“Finally, there was absolutely no basis for the statement I made about Mr. Dale taking pictures of children, or for any insinuation I made,” he wrote.

It was Mr. Ford’s second official apology to Mr. Dale. On Tuesday, he said in council chambers that he “never called Mr. Dale a pedophile” and did not intend to suggest as much, but the reporter rejected it as insufficient, claiming Mr. Ford “didn’t retract anything at all.”

Reading a statement on Tuesday, Mr. Ford had said he “never called Mr. Dale a pedophile. I have never used that word to describe Mr. Dale. I do not believe Mr. Dale is a pedophile, nor did I intend to suggest that in my comments. It is unfortunate that the word I did not say has been ascribed to me by the media but I wish to sincerely apologize again to Mr. Dale if my actual words have caused him any harm or personal offence.

“If Mr. Daniel Dale is here I want to personally apologize to him.”

“In his ‘apology,’ the mayor didn’t retract anything at all. Instead, he blamed the media for its reasonable interpretation of his words,” Dale said in a series of tweets Tuesday afternoon. “I asked Mayor Ford to 1) retract all of his false claims about my conduct and 2) issue an unreserved, abject, complete apology. His statement today didn’t come close. I’m proceeding with a defamation lawsuit.”

Mayor Rob Ford stood by his comments on Dec. 10, the day after the interview with Conrad Black aired

Mr. Ford’s chief of staff handed out the new statement to reporters on Wednesday, and stated “the mayor considers this matter closed.”

“I don’t know how much more sincere he can be,” said Councillor Doug Ford after the second apology. “About as sincere as you can get, so let’s move on.”

In a series of Twitter messages Wednesday night, Mr. Dale reported his satisfaction with the more detailed letter from the mayor’s office, and the apology from Zoomer Media.

“I sincerely appreciate Mayor Ford’s complete retraction and unqualified apology and I’m very glad the truth is no longer in dispute.”

I sincerely appreciate Mayor Ford’s complete retraction and unqualified apology, and I’m very glad the truth is no longer in dispute.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/18/daniel-dale-decides-not-to-file-defamation-suit-after-rob-ford-apologizes-without-reservation-to-toronto-reporter/feed/1stdTSA121813-AfternoonCouncil1.jpgTHE ZOOMER SHOWRob-Ford-letterphoto-letter-2Rob Ford 'apologizes' but Toronto Star reporter says 'no dad or teacher' would accept it and is proceeding with lawsuithttp://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/17/rob-ford-apologizes-to-toronto-reporter-but-says-he-did-not-imply-he-was-a-pedophile/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/17/rob-ford-apologizes-to-toronto-reporter-but-says-he-did-not-imply-he-was-a-pedophile/#commentsTue, 17 Dec 2013 16:24:09 +0000Natalie Alcoba]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=403516Toronto Star's Daniel Dale "if my actual words have caused him any harm" but the reporter said "no dad or teacher would accept that apology as sufficient" and is proceeding with his defamation lawsuit against the mayor.]]>

Rob Ford said he wanted to “sincerely apologize” to the Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale “if my actual words have caused him any harm” but the reporter said “no dad or teacher would accept that apology as sufficient” and is proceeding with his defamation lawsuit against the mayor.

Dale served a libel notice Thursday night to Ford to retract comments and “defamatory statements” from an interview last week in which the reporter said the mayor insinuated he was a pedophile. Dale gave Ford 72 hours to apologize from Thursday night, which Ford ignored until Tuesday morning.

“In his ‘apology,’ the mayor didn’t retract anything at all. Instead, he blamed the media for its reasonable interpretation of his words,” Dale said in a series of tweets Tuesday afternoon. “I asked Mayor Ford to 1) retract all of his false claims about my conduct and 2) issue an unreserved, abject, complete apology. His statement today didn’t come close. I’m proceeding with a defamation lawsuit.”

Ford said he could not comment on Dale’s statement.

Dale was making his statement on Twitter while at the same time the mayor was dancing inside council chambers to live music during a presentation. It was the second time within 48 hours, the mayor was filmed dancing away his troubles.

Reading a statement earlier Tuesday, Ford said he “never called Mr. Dale a pedophile. I have never used that word to describe Mr. Dale. I do not believe Mr. Dale is a pedophile, nor did I intend to suggest that in my comments. It is unfortunate that the word I did not say has been ascribed to me by the media but I wish to sincerely apologize again to Mr. Dale if my actual words have caused him any harm or personal offence.

“If Mr. Daniel Dale is here I want to personally apologize to him.”

So: while I appreciate the mayor's first step, no dad or teacher would accept that apology as sufficient. I would appreciate another try.

Mayor Ford’s lawyer, Dennis Morris, arrived at City Hall Tuesday afternoon, purportedly to talk about the new batch of Ford bobblehead dolls. He came out and informed the press that the mayor had lost 26 pounds in the last five weeks, putting him at 310 pounds. He also suggested that he thought the matter with Dale was “over.”

“We spoke at length last night, I gave him different options and he chose the correct one,” Morris said of the mayor, adding he didn’t write Ford’s apology.

“I think everyone should go home and do their Christmas shopping,” he added before slipping into the mayor’s office.

Dale’s lawsuit came after Ford’s interview with Conrad Black on VisionTV’s The Zoomer.

“I guess the worst one was Daniel Dale in my backyard taking pictures,” Ford told Black when asked about his issues with the media. “I have little kids, and when a guy’s taking pictures of little kids, I don’t want to say that word, but you start thinking, you know, what’s this guy all about?”

Ford said Tuesday his comments were about his thinking at the time of the incident.

“My comments to Conrad Black were in context to my worst experiences with the incredible assault by media, particularly the Toronto Star, on me and my family. My comment related to the fear I had for my family when my longtime neighbour told me that someone was lurking at my fence and appeared to be taking pictures of my family home over the fence,” he said. “To be clear, I never personally saw Mr. Dale peering over the fence or taking pictures, my neighbour told me, however, that he did see someone doing this.

Tyler Anderson / National PostToronto mayor Rob Ford (right) dances with singer Jay Douglas (left) to live music during a presentation in council chambers during a council meeting in Toronto, Ontario, December 17, 2013.

“Crucially, he didn’t retract or specifically apologize for the categorically false, malicious, and in-itself-defamatory claim about me taking pictures of his young kids,” Dale tweeted.

Dale has said he was not looking over the fence and was not taking pictures of the Ford home. Police said last year that there was “no evidence” that Dale did anything wrong and he was not charged with offence.

Councillor Shelley Carroll said Ford’s apology would carry more weight if he admitted he did something wrong.

“He’s an expert at non-apologies, he’s been doing it for years. A real apology is I caused you harm Daniel, I am sorry for that. The admission of guilt makes it real but you’ll never get an admission of guilt from Mayor Ford. It’s not his style and it hasn’t been since birth,” Carroll told reporters Tuesday.

Tyler Anderson / National PostToronto mayor Rob Ford (middle) dances with Speaker Frances Nunziata (left) to live music during a presentation in council chambers during a council meeting in Toronto, Ontario, December 17, 2013.

Councillor Mark Grimes said he thought the mayor’s apology was “well thought out” and he hoped it would allow council to get back to business.

It was the second time he rose to give a mea culpa on Tuesday, the first for comments he made Monday night about council being corrupt. Councillor Mammoliti also gave a qualified apology for his behaviour Monday, which had led the Speaker to end the meeting early.

“This has turned into the greatest show on earth,” said Councillor Grimes. “There’s no word for it anymore. Ridiculous, over the top, gong show, that’s all gone.”

Ford said in his statement that he had “no issue” with Dale, but he did have an issue with the Toronto Star.

Ford admitted he “accosted” Dale in the May incident during his statement. At the time, Dale said Ford ran at him with his fist raised.

Tyler Anderson / National PostDecember 17, 2013 - Toronto mayor Rob Ford (right) dances with other councillors and city staff to live music during a presentation in council chambers during a council meeting in Toronto, Ontario, December 17, 2013.

“I accosted this person as I believe he was a threat to my family and this individual turned out to be Daniel Dale on assignment from the Toronto Star,” Ford said.

Dale also named VisionTV in his libel notice and on Friday, Zoomermedia issued a statement that said “as there is now the threat of legal action, ZoomerMedia will not be making a statement until such time as we can consult with our attorneys to consider the allegations and determine next steps.”

Last week, Mayor Ford said he stood by every word in his interview with Black.

Councillor Doug Ford said he did not think his brother owed Dale an apology and said the reporter was a “pawn.”

“They’re hurting, they’re losing money, this is all about selling newspapers. It’s a shame, a shame, that they’re using Daniel Dale as a pawn here,” Councillor Ford said at city hall.

Dale has said in a column that the Toronto Star allowed him to make his own decision on how to proceed.

Grimes noted that 91 items remain on the agenda of city council on Tuesday. A spirited debate about the water budget, which includes dealing with basement flooding issues, was underway when the mayor rose to make his statement.

“That’s what we should be dealing with, not all this other craziness on the side,” said Grimes. “Hopefully the new year is coming and we get through this council meeting … and move on.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/17/rob-ford-apologizes-to-toronto-reporter-but-says-he-did-not-imply-he-was-a-pedophile/feed/1stdToronto mayor Rob Ford (left) dances with city staff to live music during a presentation in council chambers during a council meeting in Toronto, Ontario, December 17, 2013.Twitter/@ddale8Tyler Anderson / National PostTyler Anderson / National PostTyler Anderson / National PostTHE ZOOMER SHOWConrad Black: ‘Star values’ on paradehttp://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/14/conrad-black-star-values-on-parade/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/14/conrad-black-star-values-on-parade/#commentsSat, 14 Dec 2013 05:01:00 +0000http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/?p=139293

My attempt to de-escalate the prolonged effort to crucify Toronto Mayor Rob Ford (in which, admittedly, he often has participated himself by his outrageous antics) seems, to the intense frustration of its perpetrators, to be succeeding. Unfortunately, the Mayor’s most vicious media critic won’t admit defeat without first dragging the issue into the court system, all the while engaging in a crude hate campaign against selected targets, including me.

As co-host of the Vision Channel television program Zoomer, I invite people to sit down with me in civilized conversation, which often included unwelcome questions. But I do not conduct an antagonistic debate. This is a format that viewers seem to enjoy, and it was on this basis that guests — including Mayor Ford, last week — have agreed to speak with me.

On the opening subject, the range of embarrassing and improper incidents and utterances that has mired the Ford regime in controversy, the Mayor volunteered that he had done and said many “stupid, silly, juvenile” things, made an awful fool of himself, and embarrassed the city; and he unreservedly apologized for it. From there, the conversation proceeded in a relaxed way. We discussed his renunciation of drink and drugs, and his determination never to be involved again in any such incident as those that have generated this crisis in his career. He spoke of his daily, early-morning work-outs at the gym, and the weight that he has lost and intends to lose. I asked him about his claims to having reduced the city’s expenses, with the very well-researched analysis of the Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale in my hand; the information, which I quoted to the Mayor, effectively whittled his claim from $1-billion of savings to $638-million (still a very respectable accomplishment).

I also invited him to speculate on the motives of the chief of police, Bill Blair, in openly expressing disappointment with the mayor personally and thereby serving as an apparent ally in the Star-led attempt to brand the mayor as a criminal and substance-abuser who is unfit for public office. As the chief should know better than anyone, such designations require the application of due process, not just inflammatory denunciations in the media. (Mr. Ford suggested that the chief was annoyed because the mayor had cut $21-million of spending requested by the police.)

Related

I asked the Mayor which episodes of his many abrasions with the media had been most upsetting to him, and he said that the worst provocation to date was when Star reporter Daniel Dale was reported to the mayor (by a neighbour) to be lurking behind the mayor’s house in a location that might allow Mr. Dale to observe his two young children at play in their back yard. Mr. Ford said that he found this very intrusive and worrisome, and wondered at the stranger’s motives. I took this to mean that Ford was uncertain of what he was dealing with until he saw that it was a journalist; and that he considered Mr. Dale to be unacceptably nosy, but there was no thought that Mr. Dale himself was himself a deviant.

Mr. Dale has denied almost every aspect of the mayor’s account, and the mayor has reaffirmed his version of these events. The gap between their versions is greater than can be explained by a legitimate good faith difference of recollection. They have accused each other of lying, and one of them is. Mr. Dale now has indicated that he will sue Mr. Ford on the basis of his comments on my show, with the support of his employer.

The voters control this city, not The Toronto Star. And the attempt to end-run the electoral system is a menace to democracy.

If the lawsuit does proceed, perhaps we will learn where the truth is. On the record to date, the rabid hostility of the Star to the mayor and its effort to force him from office in mid-term with no process at all except its febrile agitations and those of its claque of media allies, such as Marcus Gee of The Globe and Mail and Carol Off of CBC, does not arm the mayor’s accusers with a presumption of truthfulness, even given the mayor’s own frequent liberties with the facts. Whatever the mayor’s failings (and they are serious and he has confessed them, albeit with reluctance and in stages, but very unambiguously when I spoke with him), he is entitled to the formalities of fair and rigorous judgment that are assured to everyone in this society. The Dale matter, though important to the parties, is a sideshow.

The mayor has invited the police and prosecutors to charge him if they have evidence of a crime, and he repeated the invitation in our conversation; yet they have not. If they have no case, there should be no question of the mayor vacating his office in mid-term. Those who have problems with the mayor’s style (and there is plenty of room for such concerns) can wait for the 2014 election. The voters control this city, not the Toronto Star. And the attempt to end-run the electoral system is dishonest and a menace to democracy.

In a demonstration of what has become the imperious arrogance of the Star’s editor, my former protégé Michael Cooke, he asked to see footage of my conversation with the Mayor before it was approved for telecasting. (Naturally, he was turned down, as no outsider screens what we choose to telecast). As the show was being aired, Star spokespeople accused the mayor of implying that Mr. Dale was a pedophile. He did not, and none of us at the program interpreted his remarks in that way.

Mr. Ford’s exact phrasing was: “I have little kids, and when a guy’s taking pictures of little kids, I don’t want to say that word, but you start thinking, you know, what’s this guy all about?” The plainest meaning that can be ascribed to these words is that Mr. Ford was explaining his thoughts at the time, before he found out that the person lurking about his property line was a reporter, not a predator.

Anyone who has had small children knows the concerns of lurking strangers, and all of us who have been hounded unmercifully in our homes by the media know how unutterably provoking it is. The notion that the mayor had insinuated that Dale was a pervert was a confection uniquely of his colleagues at the Star, and he has his colleagues to thank for whatever stigmatization he feels he has suffered.

— — — — —

It has been my privilege to employ many thousands of journalists over four decades and four continents. I appreciate their talents and their qualities, and am fairly unfazed by most of their foibles; they perform an indispensably vital function. Occasionally, however, the media’s lack of professional self-discipline spikes up into a societal problem that is more than just a mere nuisance, as it has on this occasion.

For reasons that are a mystery to me, but not one that has incited my curiosity very much, the Toronto Star has been unreservedly hostile to me at virtually every opportunity since the late Ken Adachi favorably reviewed my biography of Maurice Duplessis in 1977. Most of the time, it has been fair, if snide, comment, but sometimes not, and occasionally I have replied to it, in sharpish terms that usually produce an anodyne pause in the Star’s bilious vituperation.

I find the Star a banal, middle-brow newspaper which is the bearer of some interesting traditions of reform advocacy and some lively writing; but in the current crisis of the industry and in the hands of its present and recent leadership it has atrophied, and is now like a decrepit Jurassic monster, with failing sight and palsied limb that yet comes snorting out of the undergrowth occasionally in pursuit of some misconceived or conjured cause. Some of the reporters are competent but most of the columnists are nasty, as dull as dried parsley, and many of them can’t write. The whole quavering enterprise still purports to inflict “Star values” on its dwindling, probably unsuspecting readership, and from time to time this involves some mud-slinging against me.

As I saw, from email traffic and other indicators, this excrescent tide rising again on Tuesday night, I declined the importunings of a very courteous Star reporter to join in self-criticism for facilitating the mayor’s alleged slur against its Mr. Dale; and for my own amusement, (the Star has never intentionally been any barrel of laughs) I did so in rather sharply formulated strictures. I was confident that the trashiest Star writers would be favoring me with their attention the next day, and I was not disappointed.

Mayor Ford will finish his term. The Star’s attempted coup is collapsing

On Wednesday, Cooke unleashed his most fiercely braying columnist, Rosie DiManno — a feminoid who is so disconcerted by my wife’s timeless appearance that she refers to the frequent praise of her as a form of “necrophilia.”

In her column, DiManno called me “a fool,” “disgraced,” (Brace yourself for salacity from the Star, that guardian of prudery) “ fart-catching,” a “shameless felon,” “crooked” and a “Great Blovarian”: Star values at their most eloquent current expression, from a coarse, vapid blunderbuss, complaining of imagined slurs on her colleague Daniel Dale. (The emissions from this malignant orifice were accompanied by a fatuous editorial and cartoon.)

I can take care of myself, but I want to emphasize one point: I am proud and not embarrassed at all to have been sent unjustly to prison; to have been able to help victims of the U.S. justice system when I was there; to have got the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the statute used against me; and to have collected $5 million, by far the largest libel settlement in Canadian history, from the sponsors of the prosecution, whom the Star used to quote regularly but doesn’t anymore.

Mayor Ford will finish his term. The Star’s attempted coup is collapsing, whatever happens to the Dale lawsuit; it’s righteousness is hypocrisy and claptrap, as usual. The Star is a light that has failed.

Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale is defending his decision to continue in his job at city hall despite launching a libel lawsuit against Mayor Rob Ford over comments he made in an interview with Conrad Black.

A process server delivered a notice of libel on behalf of Mr. Dale to Mayor Ford in his office on Thursday. The letter asks that the mayor retract and apologize for “defamatory statements,” according to Iris Fischer, Dale’s lawyer.

When asked on CBC’s Metro Morning whether he could continue doing his job as City Hall reporter after filing a suit against the mayor, Mr. Dale said his work wouldn’t change.

“This is purely defensive, I’m purely defending my name,” Mr. Dale said. “I think it would set an awful precedent if the mayor could effectively choose who covered him.”

“So if we don’t want to let him go around and say, well, this CBC reporter is a murderer of babies or something like that because he doesn’t like the CBC reporter and then therefore the CBC reporter will either have to let it go, this awful thing, or fight him and leave, we have to have the option of defending ourselves against foul personal attacks without being bullied out of our jobs,” Mr. Dale added.

The notice written by lawyers acting for Mr. Dale and filed against both the mayor and Vision TV, producers of The Zoomer, Mr. Black’s weekly public affairs show claims Mr. Ford’s “false and defamatory statements have caused and are continuing to cause professional and personal harm to Mr. Dale’s professional and personal reputation.”

Ms. Fischer said notice is a required first step under the libel and slander act. “Part of the rationale is that if the mayor wished to apologize or retract the statements that gives him an opportunity,” she said. “I’m not saying that would indicate what my client’s next step might be. I don’t know that at this point.”

Ms. Fischer had accompanied the process server but was asked to sign a document by Mr. Ford’s staff that she was not carrying any recording devices. “I refused to sign it, so I did not see the mayor, I came out.”

The notice concerns a May 2012 incident in which Mr. Ford confronted Mr. Dale near the rear fence of his Etobicoke home, where the reporter had gone to research a story about the mayor’s attempts to buy a neighbouring strip of parkland.

False and defamatory statements have caused and are continuing to cause professional and personal harm

Mr. Ford brought up the encounter after Mr. Black asked him what he thought was the media’s worst intrusion into his private life.

“I guess the worst one was Daniel Dale in my backyard taking pictures,” Mr. Ford replied. “I have little kids, and when a guy’s taking pictures of little kids, I don’t want to say that word, but you start thinking, you know, what’s this guy all about?”

Victor Biro for National PostThe area where Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale was standing when Toronto's Mayor Rob Ford's neighbour noticed a stranger near the backyard of the Mayor's house.

Mr. Dale’s lawyers claimed the statement was a “vicious libel of Mr. Dale. In its plain and ordinary meaning, Mr. Ford is calling Mr. Dale a pedophile.”

The notice also accused Vision TV of “maliciously” going to air with the comments regarding Mr. Dale, and demanded that both parties apologize “publicly, abjectly, unreservedly and completely.”

Mr. Dale now has three months to file a statement of claim.

“It had become clear to me that, if I had done nothing, the mayor would make his smears some sort of political talking point,” Dale wrote in his column. “His comments to Black were no one-time slip; they seemed to be the first shots in a bewildering campaign against my good name. At a Tuesday news conference, he pointedly said he stands by ‘every word,'” Mr. Dale explained in a column posted on the Star‘s website.

“No matter how much stress a legal battle might add to my personal and professional life, it is, simply, now necessary,” he continued.

Councillor Janet Davis threw her support behind Mr. Dale. “I believe him,” she said on Thursday. “Daniel Dale should defend himself. I believe his integrity is at stake.”

She went on to suggest that the mayor thinks he can say whatever he wants about people, and get away with it. “He stretches the truth, he tells inaccuracies and he has to be held to account,” she said.

But Councillor Doug Ford shrugged when he heard of the action.

“As far as I’m concerned they have no grounds to sue him whatsoever,” he said.

“I don’t know how this is flipped around. It’s just unprofessional,” said Doug Ford, who maintained Mr. Dale should not have been behind the mayor’s house, even though it was public property.

He tells inaccuracies and he has to be held to account

“If you had kids and some dude is over the fence taking a picture, leaning up, lurking over, whatever, you’re concerned,” said Doug Ford.

Mr. Dale has consistently said he did not take pictures nor look over the fence, and the Fords have not provided proof otherwise.

“Literally every single thing Ford told Black about my conduct that evening is false in some way,” Dale said in a Wednesday column before he decided to sue.

Dale described a Catch-22 type situation in which he wants to stand up for himself against the mayor’s comments but knows the Fords will use a lawsuit to portray themselves as the victims of an aggressive media out to get them.

“If I were a businessman or teacher or anything other than a Toronto Star reporter, I would have served Ford with a libel notice already,” he wrote.

The case is not exactly airtight. As noted, Mr. Ford does not use the word “pedophile,” and it could also be argued that he does not directly attribute pedophile behaviour to Mr. Dale, only that he saw a figure in his backyard who he suspected of being a pedophile.

“The mayor’s comments are categorically false. As I have said consistently since the week of the incident: I took no photos of the mayor’s family, home, or property; I never set foot on his property; I never stood on blocks; I never peered over his fence or jumped to look over the fence,” Dale wrote. “During the investigation, I offered to let the police go through my phone, which had been in their custody since the night of the incident. The lead investigator, Detective Tricia Johnston, did so, and she found no photos whatsoever from that night.

“I was there simply because I had learned that the mayor had made a rare request to purchase public land. Before I wrote an article, I wanted to make sure I knew what the land looked like, where exactly it was situated, and how it might benefit him.”

The Fords also said they had video of the incident, which was forwarded to police, who saw no unlawful behaviour on the part of Dale.

“There is a reason the mayor and the councillor [Doug Ford] refused to release this footage to the public: the police viewed it and found nothing at all,” Dale told the Post.

Victor Biro for National Post Toronto Mayor Rob Ford gestures as he describes where Daniel Dale, Toronto Star reporter was standing in May 2012.

Dale said in his Thursday column, which was written after he chose to sue, that he was seriously considering not going through with it.

“I did not want to do this. In fact, I so strongly did not want to do this that I had a whole announcement written about why I was going to take the high road and give Ford a pass for his defamation against me,” he wrote. “I was going to make the announcement this morning.

“I planned to say in my announcement that I would reconsider my decision if the mayor were to repeat his lies in the future. I woke up this morning to learn that he is already repeating them [on] a Washington, D.C. sports radio show.”

The Star will be covering all of Dale’s legal costs.

#robford reporter Daniel Dale will sue over the pervert accusation with the Toronto Star's full and complete support. Stand by.

On Friday morning, Zoomermedia issued a statement that “as there is now the threat of legal action, ZoomerMedia will not be making a statement until such time as we can consult with our attorneys to consider the allegations and determine next steps.”

With files from Post staff

Natalie Alcoba / National PostPage one of the notice of libel delivered on behalf of Daniel Dale to Mayor Rob Ford in his office on Thursday.

Natalie Alcoba / National PostPage two of the notice of libel delivered on behalf of Daniel Dale to Mayor Rob Ford in his office on Thursday.

Natalie Alcoba / National PostPage three of the notice of libel delivered on behalf of Daniel Dale to Mayor Rob Ford in his office on Thursday.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/12/reporter-daniel-dale-suing-rob-ford-over-alleged-pervert-accusation-during-conrad-black-interview/feed/6stdToronto Mayor Rob Ford attends a news conference at City Hall in Toronto on Tuesday December 10 2013. Ford says he stands by "every word" he said during a televised interview in which he appeared to accuse a reporter of being a pedophile.Twitter/@ddale8Victor Biro for National PostVictor Biro for National Post Natalie Alcoba / National PostNatalie Alcoba / National PostNatalie Alcoba / National PostFull Pundit: None of the Above for Prime Minister!http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/11/full-pundit-none-of-the-above-for-prime-minister/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/11/full-pundit-none-of-the-above-for-prime-minister/#commentsWed, 11 Dec 2013 17:37:49 +0000http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/?p=138945

Rock the non-voteDavid Moscrop, writing in the Ottawa Citizen, stumps for a dead-simple democratic improvement that for some reason can’t seem to gain much traction in Canada: The ability to express “none of the above” at the ballot box. Yes, please. We’re sick of taking time out of our busy schedules to spoil ballots knowing that no one’s even going to notice. If nothing else, it would allow us to quantify how much of Canadians’ purported apathy is in fact principled abstention. And we struggle to think of a good argument against it.

Here’s a little vignette that might boost the None of the Above Party: TheGlobe and Mail‘s editorialists think that in attacking NDP MP Charmaine Borg as “useless and impotent” in a sort of open letter to fellow parliamentarians, Senator Jean-Guy Dagenais made himself look, well, useless and impotent, and certainly didn’t cover the Senate in glory either. But by crying sexism in response, they allege Borg went “even further overboard” (albeit no further overboard, let’s face it, than one would expect a New Democrat MP to go). The National Post‘s Matt Gurney, meanwhile,thinks it’s a bit odd that NDP house leader Nathan Cullen is leading the charge in Borg’s defence. Seems a bit “paternalistic,” no?

Whereas David Frum worries about extremists hijacking riding associations under Michael Chong’s proposed Reform Act, and that chaos will ensue as leaders suffer in the court of public opinion for their unwitting associations with said extremists, Aaron Wherry of Maclean’s suggests that perhaps non-extremists could respond “by organizing and getting involved to select [better] nominees.” He notes that if that didn’t work, other MPs could always kick the loons out of caucus. And he suggests that instead of pulling our hair out whenever an MP disagrees with his leader on something important, voters might learn “to better appreciate nuance.” “There is, for sure, a practical wisdom to control,” Wherry writes. But we have these 308 MPs for a reason. And other democracies function perfectly well while allowing them a longer leash.

On incompetenceThe Toronto Star‘s Daniel Dale, whom the Brothers Ford groundlessly and variously accuse of trespassing in Rob’s backyard, peering into his backyard and taking pictures of his kids while doing so, and whom Rob recently insinuated might be a pedophile, calmly explains that these two men are utterly despicable and conscienceless liars.

In light of the provincial auditor-general’s revelations of Ontario Power Generation’s “absurdly employee-friendly pension plan,” “exceedingly generous performance bonuses” and “recent swelling of its executive ranks,” the Globe‘s Adam Radwanski thinks mismanagement at the hydro utility may be too entrenched, intractable and inexplicable to fix in the short term — even under duress from the Ontario Energy Board, which may “slap down” OPG’s forthcoming request for a rate increase. Privatization has proven perilous in the past, Radwanski notes; but in light of this mess he suspects the idea “may quickly begin to gain some traction.”

“To top it off,” the Toronto Sun‘s editorialists note, “OPG operates two nuclear plants and while its staff are supposed to obtain security clearances and renew them once every five years, the auditor-general found more than 50% of the staff it sampled, including senior employees with access to confidential nuclear information, never obtained a security clearance, or had expired ones.” Honestly, where do they findthese utterly shameless incompetents? Is there a special job bank?

Duly notedWilliam Watson, writing in the Citizen, notes that while the labour market is no picnic for young Canadians just now, recessions in the 1980s and 1990s had a greater impact on that cohort than the 2008 financial meltdown — and that in any event, doom and gloom isn’t going to help anyone. It’s the same as it ever was: “Like their parents and grandparents before them, today’s young people have to figure out what skills they have or can acquire that will add to the bottom line of whatever organization they want to join by enough to warrant its hiring and paying them.” Watson cannot imagine this generation has narrower horizons to explore than previous ones.

And the Star‘s Heather Mallick is utterly horrified to receive an e-mail — from a woman, no less! — accusing her of evincing “hateful,” anti-feminist and racist attitudes. It’s nothing Mallick hasn’t dubiously-to-ridiculously accused others of in the past, and no less polite than some of her own columns. But she sees it as a sign of some kind of social malaise.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/11/full-pundit-none-of-the-above-for-prime-minister/feed/0stdDebateToronto reporter in Catch-22 situation over whether to sue Rob Ford over 'vile' kids remarkhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/11/toronto-star-reporter-in-catch-22-situation-while-making-decision-on-whether-to-sue-rob-ford/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/11/toronto-star-reporter-in-catch-22-situation-while-making-decision-on-whether-to-sue-rob-ford/#commentsWed, 11 Dec 2013 14:02:45 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=400905Toronto Star's Daniel Dale says he has yet to make a decision on whether to pursue a lawsuit over Mayor Rob Ford's "vile" suggestion that the reporter was a pedophile. But Dale says smart people are telling him to sue. ]]>

The reporter at the centre of an extraordinary “pedophile” row with Rob Ford says he has yet to decide on whether to pursue a lawsuit over the Toronto mayor’s “vile” and “gross” remarks.

“It’s false. It’s malicious. It’s defamatory. It’s mind-boggling. It’s damn gross,” Dale wrote in a column for the Toronto Star Wednesday. “I’ve been advised by smart people to sue. I’m truly not yet sure what I will do.”

In an interview with Conrad Black that aired Monday night, Ford suggested Dale was taking pictures of Ford’s children over the fence in his backyard in an infamous 2012 incident.

“I have little kids. When a guy’s taking pictures of little kids,” Ford said. “I don’t want to say that word but you start thinking, ‘What’s this guy all about?'”

“Mr. Ford calling reporter Daniel Dale a pedophile tells you all you need to know about our mayor’s brain,” Cooke said in an email statement Monday.

The interview, on Black’s show The Zoomer on VisionTV, is no longer available on the show’s website.

“Literally every single thing Ford told Black about my conduct that evening is false in some way,” Dale said in Wednesday’s column.

Dale described a Catch-22 type situation in which he wants to stand up for himself against the mayor’s comments but knows the Fords will use a lawsuit to portray themselves as the victims of an aggressive media out to get them.

“If I were a businessman or teacher or anything other than a Toronto Star reporter, I would have served Ford with a libel notice already,” he wrote.

In an email to the National Post Tuesday, Dale laid out how the mayor’s statement does not match up to the facts.

“The mayor’s comments are categorically false. As I have said consistently since the week of the incident: I took no photos of the mayor’s family, home, or property; I never set foot on his property; I never stood on blocks; I never peered over his fence or jumped to look over the fence,” Dale wrote. “During the investigation, I offered to let the police go through my phone, which had been in their custody since the night of the incident. The lead investigator, Detective Tricia Johnston, did so, and she found no photos whatsoever from that night.

“I was there simply because I had learned that the mayor had made a rare request to purchase public land. Before I wrote an article, I wanted to make sure I knew what the land looked like, where exactly it was situated, and how it might benefit him.”

The Fords also said they had video of the incident, which was forwarded to police, who saw no unlawful behaviour on the part of Dale.

“There is a reason the mayor and the councillor [Doug Ford] refused to release this footage to the public: the police viewed it and found nothing at all,” Dale told the Post.

Councillor Ford said Tuesday that his brother did not make the pedophile claim but Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly called the mayor’s comments “beyond the pale” and asked him to apologize.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/11/toronto-star-reporter-in-catch-22-situation-while-making-decision-on-whether-to-sue-rob-ford/feed/3stdToronto Mayor Rob Ford attends a news conference at City Hall in Toronto on Tuesday December 10 2013.Ford says he stands by "every word" he said during a televised interview in which he appeared to accuse a reporter of being a pedophile.Twitter/@ddale8Rob Ford stands 'by every word' despite Toronto Star legal threat over 'pedophile' claims about reporterhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/10/rob-ford-toronto-star-battle-hits-incredible-new-low-as-paper-says-mayor-called-reporter-a-pedophile/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/10/rob-ford-toronto-star-battle-hits-incredible-new-low-as-paper-says-mayor-called-reporter-a-pedophile/#commentsTue, 10 Dec 2013 15:36:38 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=400290

A combative Mayor Rob Ford is refusing to apologize for comments he made that have been interpreted as a suggestion that a Toronto Star reporter is a pedophile, even after it was reported the newspaper has forwarded the case to its lawyers.

“I stand by my words, what I said with Conrad Black,” Ford said, referring to the interview that aired Monday night. However, Ford refused to repeat what he said or explain his comments.

“If you watch the interview, you’ll know what I said,” the mayor said. “I stand by every word I said with Mr. Black in my interview.

“Thank you very much,” he added loudly, walking off from the news conference.

Ford made the initial comments in an interview with Black, suggesting that Star City Hall reporter Daniel Dale was taking pictures of Ford’s children over the fence in his backyard in a 2012 incident.

“”I have little kids. When a guy’s taking pictures of little kids,” Ford said. “I don’t want to say that word but you start thinking, ‘What’s this guy all about?'”

Dale, who was in the park behind Ford’s house to research a story, has denied the mayor’s allegations, saying he was never on the his property and that the mayor threatened him in the encounter. Toronto police said last year there was “no evidence” Dale did anything wrong and did not press charges.

Michael Cooke, editor of the Star, immediately lashed out at the mayor Monday night.

“Just when you think Mayor Ford has said the most stupid thing, such as letting the whole world know about his sex life at home, he tops himself with another outrage,” wrote Cooke in an emailed statement to The Canadian Press.

“Mr. Ford calling reporter Daniel Dale a pedophile tells you all you need to know about our mayor’s brain.”

The Star is having their lawyers take a serious look at the case for defamation. Councillor Doug Ford denied Tuesday morning his brother was insinuating Dale was a pedophile.

Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly told reporters Tuesday that Ford should apologize for the comment, which he said was “almost beyond comment.”

“It fits into a pattern that changes the focus from himself to someone else,” Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly said. “It goes beyond the pale.”

In an email to the National Post, Dale vigorously defended himself against the mayor’s charges.

“The mayor’s comments are categorically false. As I have said consistently since the week of the incident: I took no photos of the mayor’s family, home, or property; I never set foot on his property; I never stood on blocks; I never peered over his fence or jumped to look over the fence,” Dale wrote. “During the investigation, I offered to let the police go through my phone, which had been in their custody since the night of the incident. The lead investigator, Detective Tricia Johnston, did so, and she found no photos whatsoever from that night.

“I was there simply because I had learned that the mayor had made a rare request to purchase public land. Before I wrote an article, I wanted to make sure I knew what the land looked like, where exactly it was situated, and how it might benefit him.”

Thanks for your kind words, everyone! Never again will I go to sleep before a Conrad Black interview with Rob Ford.

Ford has previously sent a libel notice to the Star for one of their stories, but never followed through with a lawsuit. The mayor has initially denied a number of the newspapers’ stories about his personal behaviour, including the crack video report, only to admit to their validity later.

Doug Ford and Dale had a brief encounter Tuesday morning as the budget committee meeting started.

“Doug, why do you keep lying?” Dale said, to which Ford responded: “Why do you keep stalking?”

Although Ford never used the word ‘pedophile’, his comments set off a firestorm on the media-focused Twitter, including a number of Toronto city councillors who came to Dale’s defence.

I stand with Daniel Dale- an honest and decent person. And against dishonest, sociopathic and slanderous bullies.

Dale responded shortly after the interview aired, at first lightly, but later with a stronger defence of his actions.

“Thanks for your kind words, everyone! Never again will I go to sleep before a Conrad Black interview with Rob Ford,” Dale initially tweeted.

“No, it’s my word and the police investigator’s word vs. Ford’s word. If you still believe Ford’s word, I really can’t help you, at this point, because you’re a determined fellow,” Dale later tweeted at a Scarborough resident questioning his versions of events.

Dale was also supported by a number of co-workers and other reporters.

In the interview with Black, Ford said his ongoing scandal was “ripping our family apart” and he was the target of a political vendetta by Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair.

“The chief, I have an issue with, I think it’s political,” Ford said on Black’s show, The Zoomer. “He wasn’t happy when I told people to find efficiencies.”

“I want to save money and I guess he disagrees with that.”

In a November column for the National Post, Black wrote sympathetically about the mayor but said he that “he should be more careful, including in the avoidance of inflammatory malapropisms.”

A request for comment from the Mayor’s office was not immediately returned.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kV7eZuSs94&w=620&h=465]
]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/10/rob-ford-toronto-star-battle-hits-incredible-new-low-as-paper-says-mayor-called-reporter-a-pedophile/feed/6stdToronto Mayor Rob Ford gestures as he describes where Daniel Dale, Toronto Star reporter was standing in May 2012.Twitter/@ddale8Rob Ford claims he was the target of a political vendetta by Toronto Police chief Bill Blair in new interview with Conrad Blackhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/09/rob-ford-claims-he-was-the-target-of-a-political-vendetta-by-toronto-police-chief-bill-blair-in-new-interview-with-conrad-black/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/09/rob-ford-claims-he-was-the-target-of-a-political-vendetta-by-toronto-police-chief-bill-blair-in-new-interview-with-conrad-black/#commentsTue, 10 Dec 2013 03:12:49 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=400204

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford told Conrad Black in a Monday night broadcast that the ongoing scandal is “ripping our family apart” and that he was the target of a political vendetta by Toronto Police chief Bill Blair.

“The chief, I have an issue with, I think it’s political,” Mr. Ford told Mr. Black. “He wasn’t happy when I told people to find efficiencies.”

“I want to save money and I guess he disagrees with that.”

The mayor also asserted that his children were regularly reduced to tears by the hordes of reporters outside his house.

“They’re really, really scared. They think I’m going to get hurt, they think their father’s going to get killed,” he said.

I want to save money and I guess he disagrees with that

And, Mr. Ford gave a detailed account of his May, 2012 encounter with Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale near his backyard, which he called the worst intrusion into his private life by the media.

Hinting that he assumed the camera-wielding Mr. Dale was a pedophile out to peer at his children, Mr. Ford said he “lost it.”

Laughing, Mr. Ford told Mr. Black the reporter got scared and “fled on foot” after the mayor angrily confronted him peering into the Fords’ yard from a small stack of cinder blocks.

“Lucky he fled on foot because I was upset, because that’s just crossing the line,” he said.

Mr. Dale had been there to research a story about Mr. Ford’s attempts to buy a neighbouring strip of parkland. The Toronto Star reporter denied the mayor’s claims and Toronto police said they found “no evidence” Mr. Dale was on the mayor’s property or peered over his fence.

The much-anticipated interview with the mayor, referred to cheekily as a “man even more notorious” than Conrad Black, was taped Friday in Mr. Ford’s sports-memorabilia-bedecked city hall office.

As is typical of Rob Ford media appearances of late, the segment was expected to be a ratings dynamo. Owing to “enormous demand,” the interview was broadcast a week earlier than originally planned, according to show producers.

It was also broadcast twice. Once during the regular broadcast of The Zoomer, Mr. Black’s weekly public affairs program, and again in an extended cut that went to air at midnight.

Until broadcast, Mr. Black was guarded about the content of their exchange, saying only that the mayor was a “a very nice man,” according to a statement by VisionTV.

The segment opened with whimsical ballet music overtop footage of Mr. Ford shuffling through city hall’s ever-present press scrum for the interview.

For the most part, Mr. Ford repeated—almost verbatim—many of the same statements he has made in numerous other recent interviews, be they with CBC’s Peter Mansbridge, CNN’s Anderson Cooper or, most recently, Washington, D.C. sports radio.

The mayor said that he had “never missed a day of work in 13 years,” reiterated that he had saved taxpayers money, said he had “made mistakes” and claimed to have quit drinking.

“I haven’t had a drop of alcohol in five weeks,” Mr. Ford told Mr. Black, putting his last drink approximately around the time Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair first revealed the existence of a video depicting Mr. Ford smoking crack cocaine.

He also asserted, contrary to the allegations in recently-released police documents, that his drinking never interfered with his professional life. “I’ve never once been inebriated here at council,” he said.

To back up his drug-free claim, Mr. Ford offered to do an on-the-spot pee test. “Rob, there is absolutely no need to do a urine test right now,” replied Mr. Black.

Mr. Ford also brushed off any suggestion that his alcohol-fueled descents into Etobicoke drug dens were any evidence of a substance-abuse problem.

“I was never an alcoholic, but I’d like to have a few drinks on the weekends, I think a lot of people do,” he said.

“Including me—sometimes during the week,” replied a smiling Mr. Black.

Even as the darkest details of the Rob Ford crack scandal became known. Mr. Black has remained one of the few public figures still defending the Toronto mayor.

In a November 23 column for the National Post, Mr. Black maintained that “nothing has come to light that disqualifies [Mr. Ford] from fulfilling the mandate his electors gave him.”

“I found on my recent trip [to the U.K. and Australia] that Australians and Britons found Rob Ford a refreshing change from their general impression of Canadians as monochromatic aspirant Dudley Do-Rights,” he wrote.

Previously, it has often fallen to Mr. Black himself to play the role of atypical Canadian to foreign audiences—albeit with a much more refined vocabulary.

Soon after his release from U.S. prison, Mr. Black famously called the BBC’s Jeremy Paxman “priggish, gullible British fool” in a combative October, 2012 interview.

Mr. Black added that he was proud of “being able to endure a discussion like this without getting up and smashing your face in.”

The Toronto mayor and the former media baron also appear to share a mutual penchant for stubborn defiance against the machinations of a system they deem to have turned against them.

As Mr. Ford arguably set a new bar on refusing to resign at all costs, he and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, have consistently maintained that he is unjustly targeted by a politicized media and city hall establishment.

Nevertheless, Mr. Black did open the interview by saying that Mr. Ford had “a problem with … denying things that you’ve subsequently admitted” and told him the scandal “could have been handled better.”

But, he also referred to their mutual adversarial relationship with the Toronto Star as a “badge of honour.”

As to the 2014 mayoral election, Mr. Ford said he “felt comfortable” and said that losing 60 pounds, rather than any kind of drug or alcohol rehabilitation program, would be the best way to resurrect his personal image.

He also asserted that without him at the helm, Toronto has “gotten back on the gravy train.”

“If the guard’s not there then the inmates take over,” he told Mr. Black.

Mayor Rob Ford’s citywide approval rating has fallen, nowhere more dramatically than in his home turf of Etobicoke, a new poll by Forum Research reveals.

Four in 10 Toronto residents surveyed said they approved of the job Mr. Ford was doing, a drop of seven percentage points since last month. In Etobicoke — where the mayor clashed with a local journalist recently after attempting to buy a slice of public parkland next to his home — Mr. Ford’s rating fell by 15 percentage points, to 33%.

“I think trying to buy the parkland for himself, chasing a reporter and all that, it’s just more antics,” Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff said Wednesday. “I don’t think it’s mayorly to be doing that type of stuff. It just seems like the old Rob Ford, getting into some kind of trouble.”

The Forum telephone survey of 704 residents was conducted Monday and is considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The poll comes three weeks after a tense encounter between the mayor and Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale outside Mr. Ford’s Etobicoke home. At the time, Mr. Dale was researching a story on Mr. Ford’s bid to expand his property by purchasing a small piece of public parkland directly adjacent to his lot.

Beyond the parkland issue, Mr. Bozinoff said, Etobicoke residents may be feeling the mayor has taken their support for granted, while fighting for subways on the other side of the city.

“He’s not perceived to be doing anything for Etobicoke,” Mr. Bozinoff said.

Though the 2014 election is still a political lifetime away, the Forum poll reveals that if a vote between Mr. Ford and one of his strongest potential opponents were held today, the mayor would likely be on the losing end.

Councillors Adam Vaughan and Karen Stintz would each beat Mr. Ford handily in a two-way race, the poll shows, while Councillor Shelley Carroll would run neck-and-neck with the mayor. Political commentator and former mayoral candidate John Tory would win by the widest margin, the poll shows, with 52% support to Mr. Ford’s 29%.

When it becomes a three-way race, however, the margins narrow. In a three-way race among Mr. Ford, Mr. Vaughan and Mr. Tory, they come in roughly equal, at 26%, 33% and 31%, respectively. In a race among Mr. Ford, Mr. Vaughan and Ms. Carroll, the mayor wins with 36% of the vote. The numbers indicate that if the left wants to put forward a candidate to beat Mr. Ford, they will need to rally around one person rather than divide support, Mr. Bozinoff said.

“It’s a major undertaking to take him on, but it can be done, and only one person can do it or we’re going to have a rerun of the last election,” he said, referring to Mr. Ford’s victory over former deputy premier George Smitherman and former deputy mayor Joe Pantalone. “If we end up with a three-way race, he’s going to win.”

A separate Forum poll also released Wednesday shows significant public disapproval with how Toronto police handled the G20 summit, though Chief Bill Blair fared better on an individual performance measure.

In the wake of a scathing report from a provincial police watchdog that substantiated allegations of excessive force and civil-rights abuses during the G20, two-thirds of residents surveyed said they disapproved of Toronto police actions at the 2010 world leaders’ conference — yet close to half said they approved of the job Chief Blair did during the summit.

Mr. Ford had accused reporter Daniel Dale of spying on him and peering into his backyard last week. Mr. Dale has denied those allegations, saying that he was in the neighbourhood to inspect a piece of land the mayor wanted to buy.

Mr. Dale said Mr. Ford charged at him with his fist cocked and demanded he drop his cell phone when he spotted him behind his house. The mayor says he did not touch the reporter.

The mayor was not immediately available for comment.

Councillor Doug Ford, who had said surveillance footage showed the reporter’s head “bobbing up and down” behind the fence, considers the matter closed now.

‘He should maybe make a phone call, and we’ll leave him some biscuits outside the fence’

“It’s just one of many things that we’ve dealt with with the Star, and there is going to be many more,” he said. “I’ll stick with my comment as I said yesterday, I don’t believe it’s Daniel Dale, I believe he was sent there by his superiors and that goes back to their credibility.”

Mr. Dale says that’s not true, and that it was his idea to go to the mayor’s neighbourhood that evening.

Councillor Ford added that if Mr. Dale decides to come over again, “he should maybe make a phone call, and we’ll leave him some biscuits outside the fence every night.”

On Twitter, Mr. Dale wrote said he and police looked at his BlackBerry Wednesday afternoon and found no photos or videos from that night. “There’s also no evidence I was ever on the mayor’s property, because I was never on the mayor’s property,” he wrote.

Mayor Rob Ford joined members of Canada’s ethnic press at City Hall on Monday to emphasize “the need to respect press freedom.”

The occasion marked the United Nation’s World Press Freedom Day, which was May 3.

“The day serves as a reminder that violations of press freedom occur in countries around the world where journalists, editors, publishers are harassed, detained, attacked and killed,” said Mayor Ford, who has himself been embroiled in a public dispute with the Toronto Star after a confrontation with a reporter outside his home last week.

The Mayor has threatened not to take part in press conferences if a Star reporter is present. Mr. Ford accuses Star reporter Daniel Dale of spying on his house.

Mr. Dale denies the allegation, saying he was in the area last Wednesday to inspect a piece of parkland that the Mayor wants to purchase next to his house.

The Mayor did not take questions after he read the proclamation on Monday.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/07/rob-ford-celebrates-world-press-freedom-day-does-not-take-reporters-questions/feed/4stdToronto Mayor Rob Ford has himself been embroiled in a public dispute with the media after a confrontation with a reporter outside his home last week.Posted Toronto Political Panel: The Mayor's fence feudhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/06/rob-ford-daniel-dale-toronto-star/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/06/rob-ford-daniel-dale-toronto-star/#commentsMon, 07 May 2012 00:52:48 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=170121

Matt Gurney, Chris Selley and Jonathan Goldsbie weigh in on the fuss at the Ford fence.

Gurney: I was just preparing to turn in for an early night on Wednesday when I made the mistake of deciding, “Hey, might as well check out Twitter one more time, I doubt I’ll see anything that’ll keep me up for several more hours.” But, alas, Mayor Ford had had yet another bizarre confrontation with a member of the media, this time Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale, who appears to have been genuinely fearful of the Mayor after being confronted by Ford near his property. There doesn’t actually seem to be a lot that’s actually in dispute between the two versions of events, only whether Dale ever stood on cinderblocks and how good a peek he took at Ford’s backyard. As I’ve already said on this matter, I don’t think that the Mayor or the Star come out of this looking good. I’d be more inclined to believe the Mayor had simply had another of his special kind of bozo-eruption had a neighbour of his also not been alarmed by Dale’s presence. That briefly led me to perhaps wonder if Ford may have had a point this time, but he quickly found a way to lose my sympathy by threatening to boycott any media scrum where Dale was present. I don’t really even know how to start this for us, so I’ll just turn it over to you guys with the broadest question possible: Thoughts?

Selley: I can’t believe this needs to be said, but it does, so let’s get it out of the way: Setting aside the unproven cinder block/peeking allegations, Daniel Dale did absolutely nothing wrong. The Mayor wants to buy some parkland; that’s news. Going to have a look at the piece of land isn’t on a line between acceptable and unacceptable; it isn’t “overkill”; it wasn’t “creeping around the mayor’s house,” as the Sun‘s Sue Ann Levy put it. It was just reporting — back before Google Earth, it might have been one of the first things a reporter would do in researching the story. So, yes. He could have gone earlier in the day; he could have phoned the mayor’s office first; he could have rung the doorbell and announced his intentions. But there was nothing wrong with him not doing those things. Fear that the mayor of Canada’s largest city might charge out in a furious rage would not have been a reasonable justification to do those things — or if it was, it reflects badly on Ford, not Dale. And Ford knows Dale. At the point he recognized who it was back there, he should — at most — have stomped back inside in a huff. There’s a larger context here, I get it. I’m not defending the Star, writ large. But it’s disturbing to see people, even other journalists, criticizing a reporter for … well, reporting.

‘It speaks to a vast ignorance of what constitutes a matter of public interest’

Goldsbie: First off, I should mention that I consider Dale a friend, and so anything I say may be coloured by that. And indeed, it does bother me, as it does both of you, that so much of the debate has turned to whether Dale’s reporting was ill-advised, rather than whether the mayor’s reaction to it was grossly disproportionate. It speaks to a vast ignorance of what constitutes a matter of public interest, and what is involved in reporting on it. It also speaks to an insane level of deference toward the mayor, whom we are told we should know better than to “poke.” Also, quite a lot of people mistakenly believe that Dale was researching more than the simple matter of the land purchase. Hence the skepticism of the Star, and the enthusiasm with which the mayor’s team pounced on the visit, hoping to undermine the paper’s credibility. And as to Matt’s frequent argument that the mayor should just get a security detail already: earlier today, there was indeed a police vehicle hiding not far from his property, ready to inch outward at the slightest sign of something out of the ordinary.

Gurney: Knowing there are police on hand is indeed good news, for a whole heap of reasons. It would be better news if I felt they weren’t necessary … but they are. Again, for a bunch of reasons. But I don’t entirely credit the theory that this incident will really be of much use to the mayor. The battle lines are pretty starkly drawn here already. The Star doesn’t like Ford, and vice versa. It superficially benefits both sides to beat the war drums now and then, and the Mayor knows his allies at the Sun are game. It’s all very entertaining, and I enjoy wading in perhaps more than I should. But I haven’t lost sight of the fact that what makes for good reading doesn’t make for a good city. And I have just barely enough humanity left — extremely barely — to have found this whole affair a bit depressing.

Selley: I’m usually the guy professing depression, but honestly, this was so predictable, so rote, as to be business as usual. Infuriated mayor charges at mild-mannered reporter on public property? Star runs 15 stories on it, plus yet another editorial cartoon lampooning mayor’s weight? Ho-hum. Let’s see what’s in the Focus section. Ford threatening not to speak to media with Dale present was something a bit novel … but honestly, what does Ford ever say in a big group of media that’s of any use to anyone? The most depressing thing, to my mind, was Dale’s colleagues at competing newspapers turning their guns on him — not that journalists shouldn’t call out other journalists when they see fit, but again, all he was doing was simple reporting a simple story.

Goldsbie: A public official trying to effect a public transaction for the purchase of public land is a matter of public interest and the public record. Anyone saying otherwise has a frighteningly dim view of the role of a free press in a democratic society. Neither property rights nor privacy rights are absolute, and yet — given that this episode occurred adjacent to Ford’s land — neither principle very much applies, anyway. It’s as though a person were entering into a lease agreement with the City for a prime piece of public property, and then found himself subject to scrutiny and criticism, and sued over some of the remarks made. The respondent in such a suit would surely argue that, given the public context, such a perspective on the deal was fair and reasonable. There’s a case of that nature at the Superior Court right now: it’s called Foulidis v. Ford. A hearing on motions is scheduled for this week, and I look forward to Rob Ford’s lawyer putting forward the position that public land deals are a matter of broad public interest.

National Post

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/06/rob-ford-daniel-dale-toronto-star/feed/0stdToronto Mayor Rob Ford points in the directions where Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale was standing when Ford's neighbour noticed a stranger near Ford's home.Mayor’s land request sent for reviewhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/05/mayors-land-request-sent-for-review/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/05/mayors-land-request-sent-for-review/#commentsSat, 05 May 2012 15:51:34 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=169901

The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has voted to further study Mayor Rob Ford’s request to expand his property by purchasing a slice of public parkland next to his Etobicoke home.

The conservation authority’s 12-member executive committee voted 11 to 1 to send Mr. Ford’s request to staff for a “technical review,” as staff had recommended. The executive could have denied the request outright.

“To my knowledge we haven’t sold any significant portions of parkland to a private citizen in recent memory,” said Jim Dillane, the conservation authority’s director of finance and business services. “This is getting the same consideration that would have been given to virtually anybody else that made a similar request.”

The lone dissenting voice on the executive was Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, who raised concerns that allowing the sale could prompt a deluge of similar requests by property owners.

Mr. Ford’s attempt to buy the small piece of parkland gained more attention than it otherwise might have after a confrontation this week between the Mayor and a Toronto Star City Hall reporter covering the story.

Victor Biro for National PostRob Ford talks about his encounter outside his home with a Toronto Star reporter on May 2, 2012.

In the incident, Mr. Ford confronted reporter Daniel Dale outside his home Wednesday evening after a neighbour notified the Mayor that someone was looking over his fence and taking photographs. Mr. Dale has denied peeping into the Mayor’s yard, saying he was researching a story about the potential land sale and wanted to take a look at the parcel in question.

Mr. Dale said the Mayor became enraged, and fearing an escalation of conflict, the reporter dropped his cellphone and ran away. The Star has since suggested Mr. Ford might have illicitly used the phone, citing a subsequent phone call to Councillor Maria Augimeri’s executive assistant.

Mr. Ford, meanwhile, has asked the Star to remove Mr. Dale from the City Hall beat — something the newspaper says it will not do.

“Mayor Ford is not in a position to be dictating the assignments of reporters who cover him,” Star editor Michael Cooke noted. “We have no plans to restrict Daniel Dale from attending any press conferences or scrums he would normally cover as a City Hall reporter. We don’t tell Mayor Ford where his staffers should be based; we would appreciate the same courtesy.”

The conservation authority’s executive committee has directed staff to report back on the land-sale issue in June.

The Toronto Star has suggested mayor Rob Ford may have used Daniel Dale’s cell phone after the reporter dropped it during a confrontation between the pair Wednesday evening — an act that could be considered illegal.

Mr. Dale has said he went to Mr. Ford’s neighbourhood on Wednesday evening to do research for a story about how the mayor was attempting to buy a sliver of neighbouring Scarlett Mills Park in order to build an enhanced security fence.

In an account in the Star, Mr. Dale said the mayor ran at him with his fist raised and threatened him, forcing Mr. Dale to drop his Blackberry, which was almost out of power, and personal recorder. Mr. Ford says he never physically touched Mr. Dale, although he admitted to cornering him.

Mr. Dale also explained that he was standing on public land behind Mr. Ford’s house, which he believed the mayor intended to buy. The public land Mr. Ford actually wants to buy in fact sits beside his home.

The Star obtained phone records that showed someone made a call on Mr. Dale’s Blackberry at 8:37 p.m. to Robert Andreacchi, councillor Maria Augimeri’s executive assistant. Mr. Dale had called the assistant earlier that day.

Toronto police told the Star they did not search Mr. Dale’s phone, as they would need a warrant to do so. Police also said the battery was partly charged when they received it, although Mr. Dale said it was dead when he dropped it.

Victor Biro/National PostThe area where Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale was standing when Ford’s neighbour noticed him. Ford’s home lies beyond the wooden fence, while the neighbour’s property is to the left of the chain-link fence.

The Star consulted a criminal lawyer, who said would be illegal to use the phone if it was obtained through intimidation or force.

“It’s no different than if you’re walking along the street and somebody says to you, ‘Drop your purse and get the hell out of here,’ and makes you think, with a cocked fist … that you’re going to get beaten if you don’t do it,” Reid Rusonik told the Star.

“And then they go through your purse — your purse is, at that point, property obtained by crime.”

Mr. Dale has not been charged by police, who still have the phone in their possession.

After the confrontation, Mr. Ford initially threatened to ignore media if Mr. Dale was present in a media scrum. He also pushed for Mr. Dale to be removed from the city hall beat, which the Star has said it will not do.

Mr. Ford later expanded his threat to say he won’t speak to any media if any reporter from the Star is present.

National Post, with files from Josh Visser and Natalie Alcoba

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/04/star-suggests-ford-used-reporters-phone-after-confrontation-near-mayors-house/feed/2stdThe Toronto Star has suggested mayor Rob Ford may have used Daniel Dale's cell phone after the reporter dropped it during a confrontation between the pair Wednesday evening — an act that could be considered illegal.TO0503_MayorLandRob-Ford-parkWhat the #!%* happened the night Rob Ford confronted reporter?http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/04/what-the-happened-the-night-rob-ford-confronted-reporter/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/04/what-the-happened-the-night-rob-ford-confronted-reporter/#commentsFri, 04 May 2012 06:07:57 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=169400

Police were called to Mayor Rob Ford’s house again, this time following an incident with a Toronto Star reporter. The fallout calls for the Post’s occasional feature explaining a complicated subject. Josh Visser and Natalie Alcoba report

Q What is all this commotion about a confrontation between Mayor Rob Ford and a Toronto Star reporter?A The incident happened Wednesday evening, shortly before 8 p.m. The reporter, Daniel Dale, says he was in the neighbourhood for a story about a parcel of land adjacent to the Mayor’s house that Mr. Ford wants to purchase from the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. The Mayor says he was helping his daughter Stephanie with her homework when his neighbour knocked on his front door and told him “there is somebody in your backyard, taking pictures,” and that the person was perched on cinder blocks peering in. Mr. Ford walked around his house and said he caught a man, anywhere from two feet to five metres away from his fence, on the outside. Mr. Ford says he did not realize it was a Star reporter until the man turned around. “I basically said, ‘What are you doing, get out of here.’ He just sort of panicked, threw his phone down, threw his tape down. He said, ‘You can have it, just don’t hit me’. And I didn’t hit him, I didn’t touch him.” Zravko Gagro, Mr. Ford’s next door neighbour, told the Post Wednesday night that he did not see the reporter enter Mr. Ford’s backyard.

Q Why did the reporter go to the Mayor’s house on Wednesday?A Mr. Dale says he wanted to find out if the land in question is, in fact, vacant, as the Mayor had described in a letter, or if it had mature trees on it, as the TRCA asserted. He said such a detail could affect whether the public thought the land should be sold. Mr. Dale also wanted to inspect the fence, since the Mayor wants to install an enhanced one to keep his children safe. Mr. Ford says the area where he confronted Mr. Dale is a “football field” away from the land he wants to buy.

Q Are the police investigating?A Yes. They interviewed Daniel Dale Thursday afternoon. Mr. Dale says he is not pursuing the matter legally. Mayor says he is contemplating legal action and he threatened not to talk to any reporters if Mr. Dale is part of a media scrum at City Hall. He wants the Star to remove him from the City Hall beat. Toronto Star spokesman Bob Hepburn says Mr. Dale, who won a National Newspaper Award last week, will not be leaving the City Hall beat.

‘At some point, he charged with a fist cocked at his head as if he wanted to punch me’

Q Does Mr. Dale agree with the Mayor’s version of events?A “I don’t think it’s fully accurate or honest,” says Mr. Dale. He concurs that the Mayor cornered him “like a rat” and that he ran like a “jackrabbit.” But Mr. Dale says he never peered over his fence, never stood on cinder blocks, did not go on the Mayor’s property, and he never spied on the Ford family. “At some point, he charged with a fist cocked at his head as if he wanted to punch me,” Mr. Dale told reporters Thursday afternoon. “I am not ashamed to say I yelled out for help repeatedly. I’ve taken some Twitter heat for being a wuss.” Mayor Ford does not deny he may have charged the reporter. “My first and foremost thing in my life is to protect my kids and my wife, and when someone has their back turned in a jacket, at night, you’re absolutely right. I’m going to do whatever to protect my family. But once I saw who it was, I was more shocked.”

Q Is there any proof of what happened?A Councillor Doug Ford, the Mayor’s brother, says the family has given police the footage from surveillance cameras on the Mayor’s property, but they won’t be making it public. “As far as we are concerned, the police have seen it, we don’t need to prove that he was there, Daniel Dale admitted he was there, Rob caught him there, the neighbours saw him there,” said Mr. Ford. When asked why not release the video to the public, considering Mr. Dale and the mayor’s versions of the events differ sharply, the councillor demurred. “It’s with the police right now, you can see his head bobbing up and down behind the fence, it’s a distance from the cameras to the fence, but you can see distinctly his head bobbing,” he responded.

Q What lessons have been learned from this episode?A Doug Ford re-emphasized that his younger brother should have security. “Rob thinks he’s just the average guy and says, ‘I don’t need security.’ And I remind him that ‘You’re the mayor of the largest city in Canada, the mayor of the fifth largest city in North America,’ ” Doug Ford said. “I don’t care if it’s Rob as mayor or someone else, you definitely need security for the mayor in these times.”

TORONTO — Rob Ford is not denying Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale’s allegations that the Toronto Mayor charged at him with his fist raised during a Wednesday night confrontation on public property behind Ford’s home.

When asked by the National Post if Dale’s story was true, Ford suggested he was so upset at the time he couldn’t quite remember his actions.

“I very well could have been doing that,” the Mayor said.

“My first and foremost thing in my life is to protect my kids and my wife, and when someone has their back turned in a jacket, at night…. I’m going to do whatever to protect my family. But once I saw who it was, I was more shocked. I don’t know who was shocked more. The nerve of this guy.”

Police were called to Ford’s home Wednesday night after Dale had come to the neighbourhood for a story on how the Mayor was attempting to buy a sliver of neighbouring Scarlett Mills Park in order to build an enhanced security fence.

Dale, who spoke with police Thursday afternoon about the incident, said Ford’s versions of events are neither “accurate or honest.”

Meltwater Group has analyzed the social media response to last night’s incident near Mayor Rob Ford’s home and says Twitter users are siding with the Toronto Star.

Twitter is not exactly a representative example of the population of the whole. Twitter users tend to be younger, more liberal and much more likely to be members of the media than the general public.

Both Ford and Dale do agree that the reporter, who cuts a fairly small figure, cried out for help and was frightened by the encounter.

“At some point, he charged with a fist cocked at his head as if he wanted to punch me,” Dale told reporters Thursday afternoon. “I am not ashamed to say I yelled out for help repeatedly.

“I’ve taken some Twitter heat for being a wuss but I was frightened. I have never been in a fight in my life.”

Ford says he never physically touched Dale, although he admitted to cornering him near his fence, although on public property.

“I didn’t hit him, I didn’t touch him. When I went over to pick up (the recorder and phone Dale dropped), he ran round me, and took off, back through the terrain, back through the parking lot, jumped in a car and that was it,” Ford said.

Dale says he was doing his due diligence as a reporter and wanted to check out the property in question. However, he was not sure where the land the Mayor wanted to buy actually was (it is to the side of his home) and thought it might have been the area of public property behind the Mayor’s fence.

Both Ford and Dale agree that their confrontation took place on public property.

Ford was alerted to a man’s presence by a neighbour and set off to confront the person in the property behind his fenced off backyard.

“There were cinder blocks, my neighbour said he saw him standing… he said this guy was on cinder blocks, over your wooden fence, taking pictures,” Ford said.

Dale denied Ford’s allegations that the reporter peered over his backyard fence by standing on cinder blocks. Dale said he didn’t even notice the blocks until he saw them on TV Thursday.

“I didn’t jump, I didn’t peer,” Dale said. “I never made any attempt to look through windows, to see people.”

“As far as we are concerned, the police have seen it, we don’t need to prove that he was there, Daniel Dale admitted he was there, Rob caught him there, the neighbours saw him there,” Doug Ford told the National Post.

When asked why not release the video to the public, considering Dale’s and the Mayor’s versions of the events differ sharply, Doug Ford demurred.

“It’s with the police right now, you can see his head bobbing up and down behind the fence, it’s a distance from the cameras to the fence, but you can see distinctly his head bobbing,” he responded.

“It’s not even the point. The thing is, it might not have been the Toronto Star hiding in the bushes, it could have been some nut case.”

Doug Ford says he’s told his younger brother that he should have security, something previous Toronto mayors have had.

“Rob thinks he’s just the average guy and says ‘I don’t need security’ and I remind that ‘You’re the Mayor of the largest city in Canada, the Mayor the fifth largest city in North America,’” Ford said.

“I don’t care if it’s Rob as Mayor or someone else, you definitely need security for the Mayor in these times.”

Doug Ford also said the Mayor should not have confronted the person near his fence, he should have just called police.

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti said Canadians do not have an appetite for “paparazzi styled reporting.”

“I think that there are some players in this city that don’t want him to be the Mayor next term. What they’re doing by doing all this is grabbing the sympathy vote next time. They’re only making him more popular,” said Mammoliti.

He says whether or not the reporter was on public or private property is not the point. “How would anyone feel if you had cameras around your children and your wife,” he said.

The councillor also said he believes a security detail is a “must” for the Mayor of any big city, although he’s not sure the municipality can afford it.

“Especially with all the nuts that we have roaming the streets, and what they’re capable of,” he said. “Not that journalists are a problem, they’re not. I don’t think journalists are a problem to us physically.”

MEDIA BLACKOUT THREATENED

Earlier Thursday, Mayor Ford demanded the Toronto Star remove Dale from the city hall beat and said he won’t talk to any other reporters if Dale is around.

“I will not be talking to any reporters if he’s part of that scrum. They have to take him out of City Hall,” Ford said on The John Oakley Show on AM640 Thursday morning.

Toronto Star spokesman Bob Hepburn says Dale, who won a National Newspaper Award last week, will not be leaving the city hall beat.

“This is bad move on the Mayor’s part, how does he expect to get his views known, whether it’s in the Toronto Star or in the National Post?” Hepburn said.

Ford has long been at odds with the Star, and he now says the paper’s reporting constitutes “harassment.”

“They are a left wing paper, they don’t like what I am doing,” he said.

Hepburn bristled at the suggestion of harassment from the Star.

“We are not harassing, we are not stalking the Mayor or his family … we are covering the mayor in a professional and courteous manner,” he said.

Ford added he is considering legal action.

“Enough is enough, I’ve had it with these people,” he said.

Hepburn says Dale or the Star is not considering legal action against the mayor over Wednesday’s incident.

He said Dale’s story on the potential park purchase was newsworthy.

“He went to the park, as any good reporter would … it was 7:30 at night, it was fully bright … he wanted to see the property in question,” he said.

“If that story had broken this morning, every news organization and TV camera crew would have been in the same position in the park.”

Victor Biro for National PostThe area, part of the public park, where Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale was standing when Ford’s neighbour noticed him. Ford’s home lies beyond the wooden fence, while the neighbour’s property is to the left of the chain-link fence.

FORD SAYS, STAR SAYS

Ford said he was “pretty upset” when he confronted Dale – who he recognized – but doesn’t know why Dale would have been worried he was about to get assaulted.

“He started saying ‘Help, help, help and I said ‘What are you saying help for?’” Ford said.

Zravko Gagro, Ford’s next door neighbour, reported seeing a man just before 8 p.m. – about 30 minutes before sundown.

“He looked very fishy, and I went to the Mayor’s house and I told him what was going on,” Gagro said.

Ford accused Dale of peering over his back fence and taking photos, but also said when he confronted Dale, the reporter was “five metres” away from his back fence.

The Mayor says the land that he wished to purchase was a “football field” away from where he confronted Dale.

Police have been called to Ford’s home several times in the last six months.

In January, police were called to Mr. Ford’s home after a former boyfriend of Mr. Ford’s sister, Kathy, forced his way into the home and threatened the Mayor. The man was charged with two counts threatening death and forcible entry.

Last October, Mr. Ford called police after This Hour Has 22 Minutes actress Mary Walsh accosted him in his front yard as part of a comedy skit.

“As far as we are concerned, the police have seen it, we don’t need to prove that he was there, Daniel Dale admitted he was there, Rob caught him there, the neighbours saw him there,” Doug Ford told the National Post.

When asked why not release the video to the public, considering Dale’s and the mayor’s versions of the events differ sharply, Doug Ford demurred.

“It’s with the police right now, you can see his head bobbing up and down behind the fence, it’s a distance from the cameras to the fence, but you can see distinctly his head bobbing,” he responded.

Doug Ford says he’s told his younger brother that he should have security, something previous Toronto mayors have had.

“Rob thinks he’s just the average guy and says ‘I don’t need security’ and I remind that ‘You’re the mayor of the largest city in Canada, the mayor the fifth largest city in North America,’” Ford said.

“I don’t care if it’s Rob as mayor or someone else, you definitely need security for the mayor in these times.”

Doug Ford also said the mayor should not have confronted the person near his fence, he should have just called police.

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti said Canadians do not have an appetite for “paparazzi styled reporting”.

“I think that there are some players in this city that don’t want him to be the Mayor next term. What they’re doing by doing all this is grabbing the sympathy vote next time. They’re only making him more popular,” said Mammoliti.

He says whether or not the reporter was on public or private property is not the point. “How would anyone feel if you had cameras around your children and your wife,” he said.

The councillor also said he believes a security detail is a “must” for the mayor of any big city, although he’s not sure the municipality can afford it.

“Especially with all the nuts that we have roaming the streets, and what they’re capable of,” he said. “Not that journalists are a problem, they’re not. I don’t think journalists are a problem to us physically.”

MEDIA BLACKOUT THREATENED

Earlier Thursday, Mayor Ford demanded the Toronto Star remove Dale from the city hall beat and said he won’t talk to any other reporters if Dale is around.

“I will not be talking to any reporters if he’s part of that scrum. They have to take him out of City Hall,” Ford said on The John Oakley Show on AM640 Thursday morning.

Toronto Star spokesman Bob Hepburn says Dale, who won a National Newspaper Award last week, will not be leaving the city hall beat.

“This is bad move on the mayor’s part, how does he expect to get his views known, whether it’s in the Toronto Star or in the National Post?” Hepburn said.

Ford has long been at odds with the Star, and he now says the paper’s reporting constitutes “harassment.”

“They are a left wing paper, they don’t like what I am doing,” he said.

Hepburn bristled at the suggestion of harrassment from the Star.

“We are not harrassing, we are not stalking the mayor or his family . . . we are covering the mayor in a professional and courteous manner,” he said.

Ford added he is considering legal action.

“Enough is enough, I’ve had it with these people,” he said.

Hepburn says Dale or the Star is not considering legal action against the mayor over Wednesday’s incident.

He said Dale’s story on the potential park purchase was newsworthy.

“He went to the park, as any good reporter would . . . it was 7:30 at night, it was fully bright . . . he wanted to see the property in question,” he said.

“If that story had broken this morning, every news organization and TV camera crew would have been in the same position in the park.”

Victor Biro for National PostThe area, part of the public park, where Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale was standing when Ford’s neighbour noticed him. Ford’s home lies beyond the wooden fence, while the neighbour’s property is to the left of the chain-link fence.

FORD SAYS, STAR SAYS

Ford said he was “pretty upset” when he confronted Dale – who he recognized – but doesn’t know why Dale would have been worried he was about to get assaulted.

“He started saying ‘Help, help, help and I said ‘What are you saying help for?’” Ford said.

Zravko Gagro, Ford’s next door neighbour, reported seeing a man just before 8 p.m. – about 30 minutes before sundown.

“He looked very fishy, and I went to the Mayor’s house and I told him what was going on,” Gagro said.

Ford accused Dale of peering over his back fence and taking photos, but also said when he confronted Dale, the reporter was “five metres” away from his back fence.

The mayor says the land that he wished to purchase was a “football field” away from where he confronted Dale.

Police have been called to Ford’s home several times in the last six months.

In January, police were called to Mr. Ford’s home after a former boyfriend of Mr. Ford’s sister, Kathy, forced his way into the home and threatened the Mayor. The man was charged with two counts threatening death and forcible entry.

Last October, Mr. Ford called police after This Hour Has 22 Minutes actress Mary Walsh accosted him in his front yard as part of a comedy skit.

Mayor Rob Ford is demanding the Toronto Star remove reporter Daniel Dale from the city hall beat after a Wednesday night confrontation near the mayor’s home and says he won’t talk to any other reporters if Dale is around.

“I will not be talking to any reporters if he’s part of that scrum. They have to take him out of City Hall,” Ford said on The John Oakley Show on AM640 Thursday morning.

Toronto Star spokesman Bob Hepburn says Dale, who won a National Newspaper Award last week, will not be leaving the city hall beat.

“This is bad move on the mayor’s part, how does he expect to get his views known, whether it’s in the Toronto Star or in the National Post?” Hepburn said.

Police were called to Ford’s home Wednesday evening after he spotted a man later identified as Dale approaching his back fence with a recording device.

The area, part of the public park, where Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale was standing when Ford’s neighbour noticed him. Ford’s home lies beyond the wooden fence, while the neighbour’s property is to the left of the chain-link fence. Victor Biro for National Post

Ford said he was “pretty upset” when he confronted Dale – who he recognized – but doesn’t know why Dale would have been worried he was about to get assaulted.

“He started saying ‘Help, help, help and I said ‘What are you saying help for?’” Ford said.

Zravko Gagro, Ford’s next door neighbour, reported seeing a man just before 8 p.m. – about 30 minutes before sundown.

“He looked very fishy, and I went to the Mayor’s house and I told him what was going on,” Gagro said.

A Toronto company, Meltwater Group, has analyzed the social media response to last night’s incident near Mayor Rob Ford’s home and says Twitter users are siding with the Toronto Star.

Twitter is not exactly a representative example of the population of the whole. Twitter users tend to be younger, more liberal and much more likely to be members of the media than the general public.

Ford accused Dale of peering over his back fence and taking photos, but also said when he confronted Dale, the reporter was “five metres” away from his back fence.

The mayor says the land that he wished to purchase was a “football field” away from where he confronted Dale.

Hepburn said Dale’s story on the potential park purchase was newsworthy.

“He went to the park, as any good reporter would . . . it was 7:30 at night, it was fully bright . . . he wanted to see the property in question,” he said.

“If that story had broken this morning, every news organization and TV camera crew would have been in the same position in the park.”

Ford has long been at odds with the Star, and he now says the paper’s reporting constitutes “harassment.”

“They are a left wing paper, they don’t like what I am doing,” he said.

Hepburn bristled at the suggestion of harrassment from the Star.

“We are not harrassing, we are not stalking the mayor or his family . . . we are covering the mayor in a professional and courteous manner,” he said.

Ford added he is considering legal action.

“Enough is enough, I’ve had it with these people,” he said.

Hepburn says Dale or the Star is not considering legal action against the mayor over Wednesday’s incident.

Police have been called to Ford’s home several times in the last six months.

In January, police were called to Mr. Ford’s home after a former boyfriend of Mr. Ford’s sister, Kathy, forced his way into the home and threatened the Mayor. The man was charged with two counts threatening death and forcible entry.

Last October, Mr. Ford called police after This Hour Has 22 Minutes actress Mary Walsh accosted him in his front yard as part of a comedy skit.